The Boy Who Always Loved Me

The Boy Who Always Loved Me
“What do you think they’re doing?” asked 7 year old Melanie Johnson, as she looked through Joe’s window towards the street.
“Kissing duh.” Said 8 year old Joe Jonas. Melanie was staying at the Jonas’ house while her mom, Karen, went on a date that night. They had just pulled up outside Joe’s house and hadn’t come out of the car yet.
“For that long?” Melanie couldn’t understand how you could kiss for that long.
“I guess…” Joe said. They got bored waiting for her mom to get out of the car, so they played Candyland instead.
About 10 minutes later Joe’s door opened and a 10 year old Kevin was standing in the door way.
“Melanie your mom’s here. She says its time for you to go home.” Kevin adjusted his glasses. Melanie and Joe flew past Kevin and ran down the stairs.
“Mommy!” Melanie cried and ran up to her mom. Her mom picked up her in a hug and sat her on her hip.
“Thank you so much for watching her Denise.” Karen said warmly.
“Oh it’s no problem. She’s welcome any time.” Denise smiled while she held 4 year old Nick, who had a big smile on his face.
“Come on kiddo. We need to get you home.” Karen said getting ready to walk out the door.
“Bye Joey!” Melanie squealed and waved.
“Bye Melanie!” Joe waved excitedly back.
When Melanie left, Joe headed upstairs to his room. He shared a room with Kevin. He walked in and sat down on his bed.
“Melanie’s mom came back a while ago.” Joe said starting a conversation. Kevin looked up from what he was doing.
“Oh yea?” Kevin said half interested.
“Yea. They were in the car for a long time.” Joe said.
“Oh…” Kevin went back to what he was doing.
“Do you think they were kissing?” Joe asked.
“Yea probably.” Kevin said concentrating.
“Why?” Joe asked. Kevin sighed and put what he was doing to the side.
“Why were they kissing?” Kevin asked.
“Mhmm.” Joe replied.
“Because it’s fun.” Kevin said simply.
“Have you kissed anyone?” Joe’s eyes widened.
“No, not yet. I just heard it was fun. I don’t know if it is, but I bet it is.” Kevin grinned.
“Oh ok.” Joe said suddenly not interested anymore in the topic. He changed into his pajamas and went to sleep.
Melanie’s mom came into her room to tuck her in.
“Mommy. What were you doing in the car?” She asked curiously.
“Grown up stuff honey.” Her mom said gently.
“Like what?” Melanie asked.
“You’ll find out when you’re older.” Karen leaned down and kissed her on the forehead, “ Get some sleep Mel, good night.”
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The next day Melanie went back over to the Jonas’ to play with Joe.
“Let’s go play at the pond!” Joe said dropping his crayons.
“Ok!” Melanie said excitedly. The Jonas’ had a pond behind their house. Their parents had been taking them to it ever since they first met. Now that they were a little older and taller, their parents thought it was safe for them to play by themselves. The pond was only 2 ½ feet deep.
“I’ll race ya!” Joe said as they walked towards the pond. Melanie was about to respond when Joe took off.
“Hey!” She called and ran after him, “You cheated!” That didn’t stop Joe from running even faster.
“I won!” Joe exclaimed when he got to the pond.
“That’s because you cheated…” Melanie was out of breath when she finally reached the pond. Joe shrugged his shoulders and grinned.
“You’re mean.” Melanie pouted and crossed her arms.
“I’m sorry Mel.” Joe said sadly. He didn’t like to see his friend mad.
“You mean it?” Melanie looked over at Joe.
“Yea.” Joe said.
“Ok then.” Melanie smiled.
“Look bugs!” Melanie ran over and looked at them.
“Ooh! I want to see!” Joe said and ran over.
While they were playing with the bugs, Joe ran inside and got a magnifying glass. He put a caterpillar under it and let the sun hit it. Melanie and Joe laughed as they saw it starting to smoke. (A/n: Evil little kids aren’t they? Lol)
Pretty soon they got bored with the bugs and sat down next to each other.
“Oh, I asked Kevin what your mom and her boyfriend dude were doing last night.” Joe said.
“And?” Melanie asked as she drew in the dirt.
“He said they were kissing.” Joe watched what she was doing.
“You were right.” Melanie grinned at Joe.
“Yea I know.” Joe said proudly.
“But why were they kissing?” Melanie was confused.
“Kevin says it’s fun.” Joe said.
“Fun?” Melanie raised her eyebrows.
“Yea. I don’t know how though…” Joe said.
“Me either…” Melanie agreed.
“You want to try, just to see what’s so fun about it?” Joe asked innocently.
“Ok.” Melanie shrugged her shoulders.
“On the count of three. 1…2…3.” Joe smashed his lips to Melanie’s. About 2 seconds later, they pulled away with disgusted looks on their faces.
“Ew!” Melanie shrieked.
“That’s not fun!” Joe said wiping his mouth.
Ever since that day thing’s changed for Joe and Melanie.9 YEARS LATER
“I got the pink square.” Joe said and moved his gingerbread man up one space.
“Ha! You only moved one space!” I laughed.
“Well let’s see what you get.” Joe said. I picked up a card from the top of the pile and saw that I got the blue square.
“Yes! I get to move 6 spaces!” I said excitedly. If you couldn’t tell already, Joe and I were playing Candyland. So what if we have been playing that game since we were little kids, it never gets old. Oh yea, I’m Melanie Johnson. I’m 16 and Joe is 17. Ever since I was 4, when I fell out of the jungle gym and Joe helped me up, we had been the best of friends. Nothing ever separated us. Ok well occasionally Joe would go out on a date or something, but then right after he would come over to my house, no matter how late it was.
Now, you might be wondering if I have ever left Joe to go out on a date, and if I have gone back to Joe’s house afterwards. Well I’ve never had a boyfriend before. Nobody has ever asked me out. I’m guessing it’s because I’m not the skinniest person ever. I’m just a little bit overweight, but at my school I’m treated like an outcast. I have never really had any friends besides the Jonas’. If it weren’t for them I wouldn’t have anybody. They always took care of me when my mom was gone. I was friends with Kevin and Nick, but not like I was with Joe. I use to have a girl best friend, but she moved away. I never really tried to make friends with girls after that because the girls at my school are so mean and catty. Fortunately for me, it didn’t matter to Joe how I looked. I’ve always been his best friend. He proved that to me in the 8th grade when a boy pretended to lead me on, but in the end just called me a fat ugly whore and said that nobody would ever want to date me. Joe punched him and told him to never talk to me like that again. I went home crying that day and stayed in my room. Joe came over, comforted me, and told me I was beautiful and that the boy at school was wrong. I wanted to believe him, but I didn’t. I still don’t really…
Joe and I have been having sleepovers at each other’s houses since forever. More so mine now, because Kevin wants to sleep and we keep him up with all of our talking and laughing. Our parents didn’t really mind us having sleepovers like most parents would. They trusted us, we’ve never given them a reason not to. Nobody knows what happened at the pond except us.
I barely see my mom anymore, because of all the dating she is doing. Ever since my dad died, she wanted to find somebody else. She didn’t want to be alone anymore. She started dating 7 months after the funeral. The Jonas’ practically adopted me. I spent so much time over there because she was at work, and at night she would be out on a date. There were a few times a month when she didn’t have a date and would spend time with me. I miss those times…she is too busy getting serious to spend time with me. A few day’s ago she left on a business trip with her newest boyfriend of a year, and she let me stay at the house by myself. The only thing was that I had to call her everyday and eat over at the Jonas’ house. I had no problem with the last thing.
“Ugh… you’re probably going to win…” Joe pouted. I grinned and moved my gingerbread man. Suddenly my cell phone went off. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was my mom. She was supposed to be getting home today.
“Hey Mom!” I said excitedly. “Your back? Ok I’ll be right over!”
“What?” Joe asked.
“My mom’s home. She says there is something exciting that she wants to tell me.” I said getting up from the kitchen table. “ I’ll call you later.”
“You better. I want to know what is so exciting.” Joe said walking me to the front door.
“Gosh Joe, you always want to know everything.” I grinned at him.
“Can’t help that I’m nosy.” Joe shrugged his shoulders,
“Mhmm… right. Bye Joey.” He cringed when I said. I had been calling him that ever since we were little. He never liked when I called him that, and that’s exactly why I did. I walked home thinking about that day at the pond. Ever since that day my feelings for Joe had changed. Before I kissed him all I could think of him was just as a friend. But after that, the way I saw him was different. At first I didn’t like the kiss, but then I did. I never told Joe that I did, it would probably weird him out since he didn’t like it. I know I was only 7 but I started developing a crush on him… that I still have. I think it’s bigger now than it was then. I would love to be with Joe, but I know that’s only something I can dream of. Why he would want to be with me? I see the kind of girls he goes for. They are absolutely gorgeous, and then there’s me - fat, no make-up, un-dyed hair - completely natural. Believe me, natural is just not in where I live. There is no way he could fall in love with me.
I walked into my house and saw my mom. I ran up to her and hugged her.
“Hey honey! How’ve you been?” She asked as we pulled away.
“I’ve been good. The Jonas’ took good care of me.” I said happily. “So what exciting news did you want to tell me?” My mom led me into the kitchen. Standing in there was her boyfriend Scott. He was a bald buff guy.
“Honey… Scott and I are getting married.” Karen said gently. My smile instantly faded.
“Woah, wait. I could have sworn you just said you were getting married mom.” I couldn’t believe her.
“Sweet heart, I did. We are getting married.” My mom squeezed Scott’s hand. I stared at Scott and I swear I saw an evil glint in his eye.
“I can’t believe you would do this to me…to dad.” I said slowly backing away.
“What do you mean?” My mom let go of Scott and walked over to me.
“I thought you loved dad…” I said quietly.
“I still do, but sometimes… it’s best if you just move on.” My mom came over to hug me, but I moved before she did. “Why are you having such a problem with this? You never cared before when I was dating.”
“That’s because you were dating. I never thought you would actually get married!” I said feeling tears burn in the corner of my eyes.
“Honey, it will be good for us. Especially for you, having another father figure around…” She tried to hug me again, but I stepped away.
“Maybe I don’t want afather figure.” I gritted my teeth.
“Sweet heart, I promise it will turn out fine; you’ll be ok.” My mom said sweetly.
“I will never be ok with this. Not with Scott, not with anyone.” I said coldly. My mom looked surprised and walked over to Scott for comfort. I looked over at him and saw him smirk.
I stormed out of the room and ran upstairs. Tears that were beginning to come out, finally started to fall. I buried my face in my pillow and cried. I didn’t want a new father. I wanted my old one back. I know he died when I was young, but the memories I had of him I could never forget: the first time we went to a movie together, taking me to the playground, reading me to sleep at night and when he promised to teach me how to ride a bike when I was older. That memory never came true… he died before it could even happen.
I heard my mom talking to Scott about me. Saying things like ‘I don’t know what’s gotten into her’ and ‘She’ll warm up to you eventually.’ Yea right… I wanted to call Joe, but I left my cell phone downstairs, and I didn’t want to go back down there. I sighed and blinked back tears. Pretty soon, I fell asleep.4 HOURS LATER
I awoke to the sound of tapping on my window. I opened my eyes to see Joe standing on a tree limb, waiting for me to let him in. I quickly got up and opened my window.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“You weren’t answering your phone, so I came over here instead.” Joe crawled through the window. “ I was going to use the front door, but I looked in the window and saw your mom making out with some dude. I thought it best not to disturb them. So here I am now.”
“Well that dude you saw with my mom is going to be my new dad.” I scowled.
“Oh ok-“ Joe stopped, “Wait what?”
“I guess he proposed while they were gone.” I said and sat down on my bed.
“Do you like him?” Joe sat down next to me.
“No…” I looked down and played with my hands. It’s just something I always did when I was in an awkward situation or when I was upset.
“Maybe he’ll be a cool dad.” Joe said. I glared at him.
“I mean a cool guy!” Joe said quickly. He knew I didn’t want a new dad.
“It can’t be all that bad.” Joe looked at me. I shrugged my shoulders and played with my hands again.
“We’ll see.”